Mountainhome pharmacist faces more drug charges

Charged April 11 with delivering a controlled substance to a confidential informant, a former Barrett Township CVS pharmacist now faces additional charges after authorities found he illegally filled over 100 painkiller prescriptions with almost 18,000 tablets during a three-year period.

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By ANDREW SCOTT

poconorecord.com

By ANDREW SCOTT

Posted Apr. 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By ANDREW SCOTT

Posted Apr. 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

Charged April 11 with delivering a controlled substance to a confidential informant, a former Barrett Township CVS pharmacist now faces additional charges after authorities found he illegally filled over 100 painkiller prescriptions with almost 18,000 tablets during a three-year period.

Arrested during an April 11 traffic stop after allegedly delivering 22 Diazepam tablets to the informant in the Cresco area, Frank Mordente, 64, of Tobyhanna, was arraigned Thursday on new charges. Mordente was the head pharmacist at the Mountainhome CVS.

Represented by attorney Thomas Sundmaker, Mordente smiled and emanated a pleasant aura during his preliminary arraignment and waiving of his preliminary hearing on all charges before Mountainhome Magisterial District Judge John Whitesell. The judge allowed Mordente to remain free on bail, not viewing him as a flight risk.

Mordente will now head to Monroe County Court, where he can go to trial, plead guilty or plead no contest. He made no comment to reporters.

The Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office said Mordente admitted to fraudulently using at least eight people's names to fill prescriptions for oxycodone 30 mg tablets, and to creating "phony" call-in scripts for Vicodin and dispensing the drugs as a gift. He admitted filling most of the scripts under the last name of Michael Abuiso, the man to whom he had delivered the Diazepam tablets April 11.

Mordente said he dispensed the drugs to Abuiso, knowing Abuiso was addicted to painkillers, authorities said. Mordente said he submitted some of the scripts he fraudulently filled through insurance while other scripts were paid for in cash.

Authorities said they found over 100 scripts that were not legitimate. Among these scripts, authorities counted 8,170 tablets in 2011, 9,072 tablets in 2012 and 590 tablets this year, all of which were oxycodone 30 mg tablets.

"Mordente admitted he was not fit to practice as a pharmacist and agreed to surrender his license," but "did not provide information where all the oxycodone went after the prescriptions were filled," an affidavit states.

Charged April 11 with delivery of a controlled substance, obstructing administration of law or other governmental function and hindering apprehension or prosecution, Mordente is now charged also with:

Conspiracy to obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud, forgery, deception or subterfuge.

Administration, dispensing, delivery, gift or prescription of any controlled substance by a practitioner.

Sale, dispensing, distribution, prescription or gift by any practicioner of any controlled substance to a drug-dependent person.